The End Was Really Just the Beginning
by Kaousuu
Summary: The last of the Jedi has died.


This was based on a weird dream I had and was rather hard to put into words. It's also a lot shorter than I imagined it would be. -shrug- I'm thinking about leaving this work as a skeleton, and adding more into it as the details come to me. Please read and review.

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Extinction can be defined biologically as a species completely dying out or coming to an end. Astronomically, it is the diminution in the intensity of starlight caused by absorption as it passes through a planetary atmosphere or through interstellar dust.

_A fading light…_

All eras come to an end. It's unavoidable, and even the strongest and most fit for survival eventually dwindle, and bloodlines thin.

Such was the end of the Jedi…and the Force.

The galaxy mourned not only the deceased, but the end of a legacy; one that spanned tens of thousands if not millions of years by this point in history. Planetary systems far and wide lowered their flags, dimmed their lights, and feared for what could be an eternity of metaphorical darkness.

There wasn't much to know about the one known formally as _The Last_. A human male, aged well beyond what he should have naturally, with no known family. It was believed by some that the Force, knowing that this man was the last of it's vessels, poured its all into his being, so that when he would die, it to, would as well. Others believed that the Force could not actually 'die', but rather it scattered disbursed itself deeper into the souls of the living where it would remain and survive as a more subtle life force. Theories were plentiful, but it gave the unknown a known, and that in turn, created comfort for the uneasy.

The sarcophagus of _The Last_ was the traditional sleek black oval of durasteel. Inside his ashes were places, as well as several relics of the Jedi Order: lightsabers, books, holograms, photos, robes, scrolls, Corellian Jedi Credits, and the like. In the end, it looked more like a museum storage box or a time capsule then a funerary casket. But this wasn't the funeral of one Jedi, this was the memorial of them all.

Millions of onlookers watched as the capsule was loaded onto a freighter, brought into space, and jettisoned as a proton torpedo would have been toward a nearby star.

So this was it. This was the end.

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The Jedi had gone from legend to folklore, from folklore to myth, from myth to fairytale, and from fairytale to a whisper.

The capsule never made it to the star. As a matter of fact, it was pulled into orbit as a comet, and remained that way for millennia. Civilizations rose and fell. New empires rose and fell, continuing the endless waltz of war, revolution and reconstruction just as during the times of the Jedi's heyday. Life as they knew it; went on.

The comet, now coated with a blanket of ice and dust from its sweeps through the solar system, was passing through an inhabited planet's orbit, and was pulled into its gravity well. Ice and dust broke free of capsule as it plummeted to the planet-side, creating a fiery nighttime display as it danced in the atmosphere.

The planet's inhabitants found the capsule the following morning in a wooded area outside of a large city. It was smoldering and rusted; but otherwise intact. The observers called upon one of the city's elder council members, fearful of opening and disturbing what was obviously a funerary coffin, but with the elder's consent, the capsule was pried open.

The contents, despite the velocity they were traveling at in space, were barely disturbed. Eyes widened and mouths moved at the sight of the relics, and some even began to weep. A child took the hilt of a lightsaber from the capsule, and walked it over to the elder; handing it to her. The old woman smiled, and turned the cylinder in her hand.

"What is it?" The young child asked.

To which the elder replied, "It all started _a long time ago_…"


End file.
